Threats of legal action

Discodog

I am not sure if this is feedback or help.

I am trying to get a feel as to what would make Boards close a thread because of a risk of legal action. Please note that I am not getting at Mods or any one in particular.

If had an an organisation & I emailed Boards complaining about a posted comment or about any potential future comment. Would you stop all references to me if I threatened legal action.

I thought that the recent "victory" against a well know concert promoter had cleared the air & set a precedent but maybe I am wrong.

seamus

The recent "victory" simply gave boards an "out" in the case that defamtory statements were made against any individual on boards - provided that the defamatory statement was removed as soon as it was brought to the attention of boards.

It didn't give carte blanche to publish anything. Threads are often closed in these cases to save mods the hassle of having to edit posts all over the place.

In addition, there are certain things (mostly illegal things) which cannot be published or discussed for legal reasons and a thread will be closed on that basis too.

Kinetic^

Discodog wrote: »

I am not sure if this is feedback or help.

I am trying to get a feel as to what would make Boards close a thread because of a risk of legal action. Please note that I am not getting at Mods or any one in particular.

If had an an organisation & I emailed Boards complaining about a posted comment or about any potential future comment. Would you stop all references to me if I threatened legal action.

I thought that the recent "victory" against a well know concert promoter had cleared the air & set a precedent but maybe I am wrong.

It may have set a precedent but it doesn't mean that Boards.ie will allow you to post whatever you want about whoever you like.

BuffyBot

..and it also doesn't mean we won't proactively remove some comments/statements if we feel they are likely to cause us trouble.

Context is key.

DeVore

If a company writes us a letter complaining , we'll review the posts in context. If we consider them libelous then we dont want to be held responsible, which is what that MCD ruling means.... is has a downside too you know.

We have an policy of removing individual posts unless the thread itself is substantially about libeling a company in which case, we'll remove the thread.

Occasionally we'll remove a thread to a secure area to allow us to review it and frequently these have been edited or not, and replaced.

This is pretty much how we have always operated. We are not here to allow people to abuse our platform to abuse a person or company.... they deserve civility too.

DeV.

DeVore

ps: If you threaten us with legal action and insist you are never mentioned again on Boards, we'll ignore it. We dont proactively prevent "fair comment", we only action specific libel, as and when its brought to our attention.

pps: Sometimes we will remove a post or thread without complaint from the "target" either because its outright libel and we dont want that. Or its simply against our existing rules, which can be stricter then libel laws (cf: civility).

DeV.